The Effects of Violence on Television

The Effects of Violence on Television

What has our society come to these days? Everywhere we look, violence is present; in the streets, back alleys, school, and even at home. Even if one might be a pacifist, violence will seep its way into our homes through the television. Some children that see violence on television are pulled into its harmful deceptions of problem solving.

Scientists have tried to explain why children are so amused by a big glowing box and the action that takes place within it. Research shows that television is a major source of violence for children. This research shows us that violence appeals to every audience, including children.

The effects have been seen in a number of cases. One example, from Alabama, was when a nine-year-old boy received a bad report card from his teacher. He suggested to one of his friends that he send the teacher poisoned candy as revenge. He had seen the same scenario on television the night before. In California, a 7 year old boy sprinkled ground-up glass into the lamb stew the family was to eat for dinner. When asked why he did it he replied that he wanted to see if the results would be the same in real life as they were on television (Howe 72). Some people might not accept a child's diversion of blame, but it must be pointed out that all of children claimed to have seen a similar act on television. We should not hold television directly responsible for these acts, but understand that it is television that plants a violent seed in the minds of these children.

Some psychologists and psychiatrists feel that continued exposure to such violence might unnaturally speed up the impact of the adult world on the child. This can force the child into a kind of premature maturity. As the child matures into an adult, he can become bewildered, have a greater distrust towards others, a superficial approach to adult problems, and even an unwillingness to become an adult (Carter 14).

Others see television as an unhealthy imposition into a child's learning process, substituting easy pictures for the discipline of reading and concentrating and transforming the young viewer into a hypnotized non-thinker (Langone 48). As you can see, television violence can disrupt a child's learning and thinking ability, which will cause life long problems.

The television violence can cause actual violence in a number of ways. As explained above, after viewing television violence the world becomes bland in comparison. The child needs to create violence to keep himself satisfied (Dorr 127).

Another reason why television violence causes violence in children is apparent in the big cities. Aggressive behavior was more acceptable in the city, where a child's popularity rating with classmates was not hampered by his or her aggression (Huesmann 166).

Scientists have all found one thing in common; violence in the media does have an effect on its viewers. Such results have been obtained in a survey of London schoolchildren in 1975. Greensberg found a significant relationship between violence viewing and aggression (Dorr 160),

Children who had just seen commercial violence accepted much higher levels of aggression than other children. The results were published in a report. A Surgeon General's report found some preliminary indications of a casual relationship between television viewing and aggressive behavior in children (Langone 50).

In other research among U.S. children it was discovered